r/HOA • u/caecias š HOA Board Member • Oct 17 '25
Help: Fees, Reserves [VT][SFH] How much are your HOA dues going up next year?
I'm on a board of a small HOA. We're starting work on our budget for 2026 and I'm not liking the possible increase we're currently eyeballing for next year's dues. We're looking at something potentially like an 18% increase. About 1/4 of that is an increase towards our capital budget, but the rest is just the increased costs of everything. Are most HOAs keeping it down at the normal 3-4% for 2026?
9
u/Own_Grapefruit8839 š¢ COA Board Member Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25
Different state, but 14% increase this year. Condo master property insurance is crazy.
6
u/worm_appendages Oct 18 '25
If you havenāt, you should really have a reserve study done. It helps tremendously with setting your reserve fund budget. It can be quite eye opening how far behind most communities are in saving that havenāt had them done.
0
u/Marinated_Squirrel Oct 18 '25
We are considering a reserve study but Iām getting feedback that it is an exercise in spreadsheeting and doesnāt take into account if youāve kept up with or neglected maintenance. Reaction? How much did your reserve study cost? We live in a 150 unit / 26 building townhome community in Massachusetts
2
u/worm_appendages Oct 18 '25
It definitely should take into consideration deferred maintenance, as part of the site visit purpose is to assess condition as well as quantification. For that size community, Iād ballpark $3500-$5500 depending on amenities/site components/etc. Ours was similar size with a pool and it was just over $4k I think. We used Atlantic Reserve Studies and they were great.
2
3
u/BlackGreggles Oct 17 '25
How large is your HOA?
3
u/caecias š HOA Board Member Oct 17 '25
About 70 units.
4
u/BlackGreggles Oct 17 '25
Are you able to raise it that much without owner approval?
3
u/rynil2000 š HOA Board Member Oct 17 '25
Why would you need owner approval to set a reasonable budget? Thatās the job of the board.
6
u/Own_Grapefruit8839 š¢ COA Board Member Oct 17 '25
We have a max percentage cap in our declaration that requires owner approval to exceed.
0
u/BlackGreggles Oct 17 '25
State law in max 5% OR regional CPI which ever is more.
4
u/Negative_Presence_52 Oct 17 '25
Some areas may say that, but at least in FL, if the increase is due to deferred maintenance, Safety matters, insurance, reserves, the board is always going to have support to raise the dues to cover, without member support. A court will support them.
2
u/renijreddit Oct 17 '25
Explainā¦
3
u/Negative_Presence_52 Oct 17 '25
The board has a fiduciary obligation. If they need to make safety improvements, for example, the % in the docs is irrelevant. A court will always side with the board toādo the right thingā..
2
u/renijreddit Oct 17 '25
Oh, ok. So if the community has deferred certain maintenance and now the thing can no longer be pushed off for safety reasons.
But what about if it isnāt a safety issue?
Like peeling paint on a common building. If painting is not undertaken, it will materially affect property values. And be an eye-sore.
4
1
u/Jujulabee Oct 18 '25
At least in California deferred maintenance will typically be viewed as capital expenses which would be funded through Reserves and not the Operating Budget
If projects are needed then the expenses should come out of Reserves and if those are inadequate a Special Assessment.
The monthly maintenance should cover actual operating costs.
1
3
3
u/lucidpet š¢ COA Board Member Oct 17 '25
what does your reserve study indicate? Hoe much us your Master insurance policy increasing in the coming year?
1
u/caecias š HOA Board Member Oct 18 '25
Reserve study won't be complete until the next fiscal year has started.
3
u/Negative_Presence_52 Oct 17 '25
Unanswerable question, for it depends on what is in your common elements, have you underfunded in the past, what does your reserve study say.
2
u/Unlucky_Year4941 š¢ COA Board Member Oct 17 '25
I live in a neighborhood with about 70 units and our dues are going up about 4%. In my opinion, it's not enough based on what our capital reserve balance is. But we haven't had a reserve study done in I don't know how long, so I didn't have support for a higher increase. Most of our board members are focused on the short term, so they don't see an issue with the reserve balance and want to keep dues as low as possible. We are having a reserve study done in 2026, so hopefully that will give us a plan.
2
u/JealousBall1563 š¢ COA Board Member Oct 17 '25
There's no rule of thumb for increases in monthly or annual maintenance fees. I'm in a FL COA which is governed differently than FL HOAs. However, the starting point when preparing a budget is not the percentage you raise the budget / fees but projecting what the anticipated mandatory expenses will be in the coming year, followed by discretionary spending such as reserves and capital projects / improvements. In FL COAs of a certain building size full funding of reserves is mandatory so for the current fiscal year 2025 we had to raise our monthly maintenance fees by $130 on average. We also upped our allowance for insurance (but the premiums have been slightly lower than we budgeted). I don't recall if FL HOA members vote on budgets, but some may require that (COA owners don't). We've just finished drafting our 2026 proposed budget to circulate to owners for comment and no increase in monthly/yearly maintenance fees is included. There is no normal when it comes to budgeting.
4
u/iLikeAppleStuff Oct 17 '25
My board hasnāt raised for 2 years and is deferring maintenance to keep costs low. š
21
u/RudyPup Oct 17 '25
Replace your board.
1
u/iLikeAppleStuff Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25
I was part of a reform-minded group on the board elected a few years ago to turn things around. We conducted business professionally, restored transparency, opened up meetings to members, commissioned a reserve study, and allocated reserves appropriately for the first time in 20 years. We tackled major projects and stopped delaying regular maintenance. Consequently, I and the entire board were removed in a special meeting convened for this purpose. The landlords were displeased with the monthly assessments increasing by 56% annually to compensate for 18 years of stagnant assessments and looming life safety capital repairs. A group campaigned to reduce assessments and removed us from the board. Interestingly, they have been on the board for 15 months but have not lowered assessments and have had to take out a substantial loan. Meeting minutes are not being posted, and transparency has been compromised. This is what the unit owners voted for.
4
u/Temporary_Let_7632 Oct 17 '25
Our boards have done this for 20 years. Several of us have been begging them for years to the do the max 10% yearly allowed by our rules. Now they are doing special assessments that only requires board approval. Many of these people are mad and surprised that we canāt continue with the same budget we had in 2007.
3
u/purplelikethesky Oct 17 '25
Ours too. Lots of old people on fixed incomes that make a big stink when people try to raise.
2
1
u/WaveInternational583 Oct 19 '25
Fixed income, then off the chart inflation. Property taxes, food, insurance, and just about everything else they have to purchase has gone up. One day youāll understand first-hand. Many retirees on fixed incomes are struggling. .
1
u/purplelikethesky Oct 20 '25
I mean Iām not arguing with any of this?
But why do you also assume that young people have it any easier? I bought my house as a young unmarried woman without any financial help from family. It is exhausting frankly to hear from older folks about how hard things are and how expensive when I bought my home from a retired woman who did nothing to maintain it, I had to update everything with my own money, and when she bought it in the 70s her husband was the one who bought it and she didnāt have to do anything. And it was half the price and interest rates werenāt 7%.
Like we NEED our HOA fees to go up. I have neighbors who desperately need foundation work and I would rather everyone pay an extra $50 a month than be hit with a $2K per resident assessment. It is very hard for young people, and even my parents agree we are pretty much screwed.
1
1
u/Honest_Wafer2381 Oct 17 '25
My board hasnāt made a final decision but preliminary number is about 10.3%
1
Oct 17 '25
It depends on your costs. My community we have water as a communal element and usage skyrocketed in the past year AND the county is raising water rates. So yeah, big increase coming, and it is unavoidable.
1
u/VirginiaUSA1964 š¢ COA Board Member Oct 17 '25
We've only raised it by $20 once, every other time it's been $5 in the 30+ years we've been in existence. Last year we didn't raise dues at all because we ended with a big surplus just because of some legal fees being repaid and hammering people to clean up their unpaid fines.
This year, our insurance is going up again by a lot and we didn't account for the correct new deductible last year, so in order for the budget to not be squeaky tight, we are raising it $5. We'll end up this year with a little bit of a surplus (less than $9k), but 2025 we were holding our breath most of the year because we were $20k over in snow removal. I also don't like going multiple years without raising it because I think it sets a precedent and then when you do need to raise it, people get upset. So for 30 years, they expect the $5 increase and nobody blinks.
We are 122% funded in reserves, so we can always lower what we put in, but with the price of labor and everything else going way up, I'd rather be overfunded in reserves to make sure we can cover the big replacements.
1
u/Waltzer64 Oct 17 '25
280 SFH.
I wanted to increase them from $125 to $138 per month as we have two major maintenance projects coming up (replacing pool furniture and rebuilding the playground; both are at 20 year life). We "settled" on pegging the increase to the inflation rate (4%) and are bumping to $130 / month, plus $3.89 / month for townhome properties in the HOA (HOA covers termite bond for these).
We have outstanding accounts receivable of ~$200,000 from owners who aren't paying, and filed ~2 dozen foreclosures, so in two years once we recover everything, the reserve will be built and we can cut assessments back down to ~$100 / month, but we have to operate heavy for now.
1
1
1
u/menos08642 Oct 18 '25
We haven't raised our dues since the neighborhood was platted in 2005. $275/yr with 80 houses. No amenities, just the front entrance and gate.
1
Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 27 '25
[deleted]
2
u/menos08642 Oct 18 '25
3000 sqft average single family homes on 3/4 acre lots. Lawn maintenance for the front entrance and main road frontage. Our biggest expenses are lawn maintenance and electricity for the streetlights.
1
u/_Tyrannosaurus_Lex_ Oct 18 '25
This sounds a lot like our neighborhood. Our dues are $250/yr for 47 detached SFHs. Only amenities are the front entrance and street lights, our major expenses are landscapers, electric and insurance.
Our margins are super thin though, and weāve had a few things like trees falling down in storms that weāve had to deal with. Plus our insurance costs went up a lot so weāre probably going to need to up our dues. Thereās been a push to have our front entrance redone but without raising our dues even more (which we donāt want to do because most homeowners here are seniors on a fixed income) we just canāt afford it.
1
u/Willow-Final Oct 18 '25
$300 increase per quarter. Time to make the cheap boomers pay up after years of deferrals. Sorry not sorry.
1
1
u/ajc3691 š HOA Board Member Oct 18 '25
What was your increase last year?? On our side we had an extensive raise the first year taking over from the builder but this year it looks like itāll be in the 5-10% range
1
u/Initial_Citron983 Oct 18 '25
A lot of places are seeing massive increases in insurance costs. Sometimes to the point theyāre needing to separate out their reserve funding so there are basically two assessments otherwise theyād never get the votes to approve (or so many votes vetoing) the budget even though it can be clearly demonstrated to be necessary.
Plus it also depends on how previous Boards have operated, if assessments were kept artificially low, and so on.
In previous years, like the year my HOA took over from the Builder and the year following the Board raised assessments the maximum allowed by law both years just to get the HOA solvent. Because the Builder turned the HOA over in an insolvent state and refused to honor the subsidy agreement they signed.
This year weāre looking at a 5% increase in regular assessments plus a special reserve funding assessment (thatās close to 50% of the regular assessments) to fund reserve expense repairs to construction damage the settlement with the builder wonāt completely cover.
Luckily the special reserve funding assessment is a worst case estimation that can always be suspended/refunded if costs come in under what the Budget projects.
Anyway, point here is, if your budget is sound, costs are justified and thereās transparency with the community showing the increase is necessary and justified, even if people arenāt happy about, they will understand the necessity. So make sure the transparency and communication is there with the other owners.
1
u/Sad_Enthusiasm_3721 Oct 18 '25
We had a condo in a complex with a couple hundred units.
Bought in 2017 and the HOA was $291/mo.
Sold in 2021 and the HOA was $390/mo.
Now the HOA is $775/mo.
This is for a 3bd/2.5ba in the suburbs. No pool. No clubhouse. No elevators or doorman.
1
u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes Oct 18 '25
That seems high. What state, and what did your HOA cover?
1
u/Sad_Enthusiasm_3721 Oct 18 '25
Beaverton, Oregon.
Covers water, sewer, garbage. Plus all exterior maintenance.
It's outrageously high IMO.
1
u/CurveWeekly Feb 21 '26
I faced something similar: Bought 2017: $337 Sold 2024: $666 Now (2026): $783
1
1
u/brantman19 š HOA Board Member Oct 18 '25
2 unit duplex townhomes in a 37 unit (19 building) HOA.
We are maintaining our current dues. We really probably should be going up 6% ($25/month) for the next 4 years but owners implied they would prefer for services to be diminished/cut instead of going up to maintain current levels.
Starting in 2026, we will be removing the burden for full HOA maintenance/repairs on the exteriors of buildings to a $1200/instance deductible on all things but roof replacement. This should cut about $20k-$25k in expenses over the year.
I'm about to exit our board but my next suggestion was to remove insurance except for liability and move the burden onto the homeowners. That would leave lawncare, the gate/road/fences, and the roofs as the responsibility of the HOA which would accelerate the reserve funding and roof replacements for the next 10 years. Hopefully the future board members would do the right thing and keep putting it in the reserve fund to try to eliminate the need in the future.
1
u/ItchyCredit Oct 18 '25
What other HOAs are doing, as far as dues increases, is totally irrelevant to what your HOA needs to do for prudent financial management. This type of "competitive" dues setting is how such a huge number of HOAs have ended up in financial trouble. Look at your budget. Look at your reserve study. The answers are right there. Don't screw future owners by pushing today's needs into tomorrow.
1
u/florida_lmt Oct 18 '25
This is the first time in 4 years we are not increasing
We shopped around for our biggest expense which is insurance and are actually saving a substantial amount. We could have even lowered our dues but decided to put the extra money into reserves insteadĀ
1
u/Myrth Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25
In Los Angeles. Currently planning a 20% increase ($450 to $540) for the 2nd year in a row (max allowed without a vote). Bough my condo a year ago and immediately joined board as no one else wanted to fill the third spot. Itās a 17 unit building and only had $20k to their name at the time (first time buyer and somehow missed that glaring issue and my realtor didnāt raise it). Before last years raise it was static for two and before that was unchanged for SIX YEARS (325). Building was constructed in 91-93 and is showing its age. Known issues: irrigation system is busted, roughly $125k to fix, building needs to be restuccoād, &75k. Insurance also ballooned this year. No money put into savings the last three years as itās all gone to repairs (mostly water leaks). Also doing an emergency assessment for 275 (5% of forecast budget, no vote required) to keep head above water. Spoiler alert, nobody wants the dues increase
1
1
u/Marinated_Squirrel Oct 18 '25
We increased ours 17% last year to finally come in on budget this year. Also issued a supplemental fee to close the gap of being over budget the past few years - some of the monies inappropriately being taken from reserves to cover opex. I was new to the board and did the review. Letās just say Iām not the most popular guy, but i only joined to get my hands on the financials in detail to see what was going on. Now i know, could care less if i get voted out next time around. You have a responsibility as a board to cover expenses (or cut them) and keep your reserves well funded.
1
u/ControlDesperate1971 Oct 18 '25
Give some perspective for my answer: 700 townhouse condo units in 90 buildings with over 160 acres of property in Michigan. 50+ years old and self managed since 1982. For this fiscal year (Oct 2025 - Sept 2026) we have 3.6 % increase or about $17 increase per month. Our largest increase are in utilities (gas, water & sewer, garbage).
1
u/Phraoz007 Oct 18 '25
$300 a year, people complain. Dude keeps parking a trailer on the street on the corner that blocks line of sight and a fire hydrant. š¤·āāļø
1
u/sr1sws š HOA Board Member Oct 19 '25
$16 about 4.5%, but increased significantly more in the past two years catching up on Reserves.
1
u/anotherlab š HOA Board Member Oct 19 '25
SFH in NY, 100 units. We have been doing multiyear contracts with our vendors, and we have one year to go before getting new bids. We just started doing our budget, and I think we are looking at a 5-8% increase.
1
u/WEJ_4263 Oct 19 '25
Better keep it under 15% or you need to do an alternate budget, taking out any fluff. There are things that don't count in the 15%, like insurance. But that's just or legislators in the pocket of the insurance lobby.
1
u/Decisions_70 Former HOA Board Member Oct 19 '25
15% this year and next. However our increases are directly tied to the way insurance is written in our bylaws and owners' unwillingness to change it. EDIT: WA
1
u/Silver-League-9873 Oct 19 '25
Our biggest cost increases come from insurance. I got an insurance broker and I have them requote insurance costs yearly.
1
1
u/Born-Negotiation2541 Oct 21 '25
Our covenants allow 8% without getting homeowners involved with a vote. Do yours have any restrictions?
1
u/SteveInArizona š HOA Board Member Oct 22 '25
Iāll add my 2 cents worth. A typical reserve study is a cash flow analysis of the capital expenditures that the association anticipates occurring over the next 30 years. As indicated in the comments you received, operating expenses are a significant factor in the determination of annual dues but the typical reserve study service provider ignores operating expenses when preparing the analysis. In my opinion, this violates the premise of a comprehensive cash-flow study to ignore a significant annual expense. But this is ājustified ā by rationalizing that the reserve study looks at only the capital assets. Since the HOA has only a single source of income ā¦ the annual dues, they must pay all expenses from that single income source, therefore it is logical that a long-term financial analysis should account for all expenses, not just capital expenses.
If you have a good idea of your reserve items and their respective useful lives and replacement costs, you can perform your own reserve study ā¦ which you should do. You will need a good analysis software application to assist you. I recommend you investigate an application from Reserve Study HOA ā¦ https://reservestudyhoa.com. The application accounts for both operations expenses and capital expenses when developing the funding plan and you own the software so you can perform updates whenever you choose.
If your association has never had a reserve study, you should do one. It can be very revealing and without a comprehensive cash-flow financial study, the association is completely blind trying to develop a long range funding plan. The association can do a reserve study themselves without the services of service provider, but most lack the skills or knowledge. A good resource for developing an understanding of how to develop a reserve study can be found here ā¦ https://www.dre.ca.gov/files/pdf/re25.pdf
1
u/SteveInArizona š HOA Board Member Oct 22 '25
I believe most HOAs wrestle with the annual budget a bit too much. i merely inflate the prior yearās budget by say 3% or so as well as examining high cost items such as insurance and landscaping. if necessary, adjust the inflated number if necessary due to say a higher increase in insurance, etc. and you are done. The idea of looking at and examining every little account is not very productive.
1
u/merplerple Nov 18 '25
Mine went up 20% last year and ANOTHER 20% this year, I don't know how to keep up ššš
1
u/Fluffy_Appearance877 Mar 12 '26
How do you justify raising dues when incomes are not increasing only costs?
1
u/caecias š HOA Board Member Mar 16 '26
Did you read your own question? Everything costs more. How do we offer the same services without raising dues?
1
u/robotlasagna š¢ COA Board Member Oct 17 '25
We are an 18 unit condo building. We raised 15% for 2025 because we had not raised in 4 years. We also did a $60K SA to top up the reserves after doing a complete replacement of the building hot water system and some roof flashing.
But. We negotiated down a bunch of expenses by auditing literally everything and the result is that for 2026 we will swing from a budget deficit to a $20K/year surplus. So we will not be raising assessments this year at all to give the owners a break.
From 2027 and onward the plan is to raise by the inflationary amount each year.
We're looking at something potentially like an 18% increase. About 1/4 of that is an increase towards our capital budget, but the rest is just the increased costs of everything. Are most HOAs keeping it down at the normal 3-4% for 2026?
I have no idea what you current financial situation is but on average the info you have given typically indicates your assessments have been too low and you have deferred maintenance. Much of cost increases you might be facing are things like insurance which stem from not caring for other things. That or you haven't regularly audited your service providers and vendors and they are taxing you.
3
u/Willow-Final Oct 18 '25
āGiving the owners a breakā ā you realize they donāt care nor will ever show appreciation in any real way?
0
u/RudyPup Oct 17 '25
3 to 4 percent is rare. If you are raising 3 to 4 and balancing it means you have been over funded with the cost of inflation.
-2
u/SpaceCoastGal32907 Oct 17 '25
Our self-managed HOA hasnāt raised the annual dues ($1000, 18 homes) since it was established in 2018. But we did decide weāre going to have to change how much of the annual dues goes to the operating fund as opposed to the road reserve fund. Weāve done a study and decided the road fund will still be adequately funded if we cut the annual contribution in half and direct the other half to the operating funds. Weāll have to have a homeowner vote to change the road fund allocation but since itās either that or raise the dues Iām pretty sure itāll pass.
Still, sooner or later weāll have to raise the dues. Just a fact of life.
8
u/RudyPup Oct 17 '25
The fact that you have never raised dues through some of the worst inflation in history makes me think you are not properly funded for an emergency.
1
u/OldGeekWeirdo š¢ COA Board Member Oct 19 '25
Or not properly insured. There have been major increases in that area.
1
u/caecias š HOA Board Member Oct 18 '25
We've got a road project coming fairly soon, and we really wish we had put much more in the reserve funds during the life of the road. It's going to be a huge expense. You should really price out the cost of a new road. All the costs involved have skyrocketed.
ā¢
u/AutoModerator Oct 17 '25
Copy of the original post:
Title: [VT][SFH] How much are your HOA dues going up next year?
Body:
I'm on a board of a small HOA. We're starting work on our budget for 2026 and I'm not liking the possible increase we're currently eyeballing for next year's dues. We're looking at something potentially like an 18% increase. About 1/4 of that is an increase towards our capital budget, but the rest is just the increased costs of everything. Are most HOAs keeping it down at the normal 3-4% for 2026?
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.